2014 - Can I see 1000 species? (1 Viewer)

[Nutcracker]

397) EASTERN CATTLE EGRET

Haven't checked back through all the posts - before you can tick Eastern Cattle Egret separately, you have to have had a Western Cattle Egret - that means a cattle egret in Europe, Africa, SW Asia (west of about 60°E longitude), or the Americas :t:

 

[Jon Turner]

Haven't checked back through all the posts - before you can tick Eastern Cattle Egret separately, you have to have had a Western Cattle Egret - that means a cattle egret in Europe, Africa, SW Asia (west of about 60°E longitude), or the Americas :t:

Saw loads in Spain in January!!!B

 

[Jon Turner]

OK, while I'm out with Chowchilla tomorrow, any one else got thoughts on best birdy destinations around Brisbane, our next stopover, I'll get as much low-down from Chow as possible, but if anyone has easy-to-reach venues with max return, that would help...
We're not staying in the city, but somewhere outside in the country.

 

[podargus]

OK, while I'm out with Chowchilla tomorrow, any one else got thoughts on best birdy destinations around Brisbane, our next stopover, I'll get as much low-down from Chow as possible, but if anyone has easy-to-reach venues with max return, that would help...
We're not staying in the city, but somewhere outside in the country.

Just quickly, here are a few options. I'm focussing on sites with species which you may not find in Melbourne or Cairns, but you'll see plenty of other birds too.

Mount Glorious - not a site I know, but has southern rainforest birds e.g. Green Catbird, Paradise Riflebird, Regent Bowerbird, Russet-tailed Thrush (Sooty Owl and Marbled Frogmouth possible if you do some spotlighting too). Further South, Mount Tamborine or Lamington NP would have the same species, plus Albert's Lyrebird.
Port of Brisbane - Asian Dowitchers reported recently
Sandy Camp Road Wetlands - Australian Little Bittern reported recently
Kedron Brook Wetland - Mangrove Honeyeater & Mangrove Gerygone
Oxley Creek Common - Variegated & Red-backed Fairy-wren

If you're willing to travel a bit further, Durikai State Forest 2 hours inland could give some really nice dry woodland birds e.g. Yellow-tufted, Fuscous, Brown-headed & Black-chinned Honeyeater, Diamond Firetail, Turquoise Parrot, Speckled Warbler etc.

Sorry that's a bit brief, but hopefully others can fill you in with details.

 

[MacNara]

OK, while I'm out with Chowchilla tomorrow, any one else got thoughts on best birdy destinations around Brisbane, our next stopover, I'll get as much low-down from Chow as possible, but if anyone has easy-to-reach venues with max return, that would help...
We're not staying in the city, but somewhere outside in the country.

Lamington National Park was fun for us. But we had a lot less time in Australia as a whole than you seem to have. Anyway, we stayed at a place called O'Reilly's. There is a portion of 'they feed it, the birds come, and you look at them', but there is also plenty for you to find if you go off by yourself. They have Satin and Regent's Bowerbirds, and we saw Paradise Riflebird. The season we went was September, so I suppose your birds will be different.

We also went to Eagleby Wetlands, but I'm not sure it will have more than you have already seen. And we visited Oxley which is drier and had some birds that we didn't find elsewhere, such as Red-backed Fairy-wren and Golden-headed Cisticola.

We also went whale-watching on a boat out of Gold Coast: it's a big company, and it has a theme park kind of thing also, and so I suppose you might find a smaller company which will also look for birds, but we enjoyed it anyway, and saw a baby Humpback jumping with its mum standing guard, which will stay with us for life. (We also had the same thing out of Kaikoura in NZ: after finding a Sperm Whale, we would have liked them to look for dolphins or seabirds, but we got to see three Sperm Whales up close for a long time, and nothing much else.)

 

[njlarsen]

Still haven't decided about California Quail and Brown Quail. Was hoping to hear from Chlidonias about these, I know Larry thinks it's cheating!

I disagree with Larry. If a bird exists in an area as a self-sustaining population, then it is tickable. That does not mean that one has to make plans to protect it's future population at the site. However, to me, you are producing bad data if you omit observations of that species.

Niels

 

[njlarsen]

When I visited Queensland several years ago (report in the vacation reports area of birdforum) I had good observations in Minnipee Parklands, Mt Coot-tha (including Powerful Owl and White-throated Nightjar), and the Samsonvale area before going to Lamington. Tom Tarrant is a good guide in that area; I believe he still runs http://www.aviceda.org/ but otherwise I am not sure how to contact him these days.

Niels

 

[Allen S. Moore]

OK, while I'm out with Chowchilla tomorrow, any one else got thoughts on best birdy destinations around Brisbane, our next stopover, I'll get as much low-down from Chow as possible, but if anyone has easy-to-reach venues with max return, that would help...
We're not staying in the city, but somewhere outside in the country.

Where are you staying? Brisbane covers a large area, you know, so "somewhere out in the country" could be anywhere along a curve of about 100km! Are you hiring a car?

I can recommend O'Reilly's. If your time there is limited, head out along one of the paths in the forest and you should see at least several new species. Another bird rich area is Wynnum, which is probably next to what podargus calls the Port of Brisbane. If you are using public transport, get a train to Wynnum North station and walk along Wynnum North Road. Driving, ditto, and there is a car parking area at the end of that road. There is a short walk from there to a hide overlooking the high tide roost for several wader species. The mangroves are just beyond and to the right of the hide. Actually, I saw more bird species on my "Wynnum day" last November than on any of the other 7 days that I stayed in Brisbane. Of course, you will see different bird species at Wynnum than at O'Reilly's.

 

[chris butterworth]

I disagree with Larry. If a bird exists in an area as a self-sustaining population, then it is tickable. That does not mean that one has to make plans to protect it's future population at the site. However, to me, you are producing bad data if you omit observations of that species.

Niels

:t: - particularly if you've got House Sparrow, Common Chaffinch, Redpoll and Yellowhammer on your NZ list ( plus Tiritiri Matangi's Takahe. Just as 'introduced', only from a little bit nearer ). You can knock Brown Quail off your NZ list if you catch up with one in Oz, but until then .................

 

[chowchilla]

We had Domestic Chicken, Turkey, Helmeted Guineafowl and Peafowl all running around unfettered today.

 

[Allen S. Moore]

Peafowl

We had Domestic Chicken, Turkey, Helmeted Guineafowl and Peafowl all running around unfettered today.

In an Australian context, don't the peafowl on Rottnest Island count as a self sustaining population? (I know that is a long way from Cairns!)

 

[Jon Turner]

great stuff. But what on earth is a Grey Spine Bill (your number 327)??:smoke:

Gerg, I think I need hearing aids Larry, Dave said Brown Thornbill!

327) BROWN THORNBILL

 

[Jon Turner]

So what can I say about today! Brilliant springs to mind, we were very lucky with the weather too, all clear and sunny but not roasting. I left Port Douglas at 04.55 and picked up Chow at 05.55. Right up the hill through the rainforest and on to Atherton Tablelands, where we visited a number of great sites and recorded 124 species, of which 109 were seen by at least one of us. That's not including the 4 mentioned above. I'll add a few at a time or the list will be tedious.
At various points along the way before even the first venue we added:
399) BLUE-WINGED KOOKABURRA
400) AUSTRALIAN PIPIT
401) WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE - just short of Mereeba perched. Also there:
402) BROWN HONEYEATER
403) YELLOW HONEYEATER
404) WHITE-THROATED HONEYEATER
405) BLACK-THROATED FINCH - Chow's bird of the day, and a very smart little fella indeed!
And at further stops:
406) PIED BUTCHERBIRD
407) SCALY-BREASTED LORIKEET
408) BLACK-FACED CUCKOO- SHRIKE
409) SCARLET HONEYEATER (how scarlet is that!)
410) BLUE-FACED HONEYEATER
411) SULPHUR-CRESTED COCKATOO
412) LEWIN'S HONEYEATER
413) CHESTNUT-BREASTED MANAKIN

 

[Jon Turner]

Thanks Allan Niels, Podargus and Macnara re Brizzie, I'll distil this info and see where we are staying before charging off!

We then made progress and arrived at Mt Hipipamee NP. Chow was amazed at : a) the lack of oriental visitors, we were the first car in the car park, and b) the lack of birds in the car park area. We headed down the trail finding:
414) GREY-HEADED ROBIN, and at the huge hole in the gorge,
415) TOOTH-BILLED BOWERBIRD
416) BRIDLED HONEYEATER
417) ATHERTON SCRUBWREN
418) PALE YELLOW ROBIN
419) FAN-TAILED CUCKOO
420) SATIN BOWERBIRD
421) PIED CURRAWONG
422) MOUNTAIN THORNBILL
423) PIED MONARCH
424) BRUSH TURKEY
425) TOPKNOT PIGEON
No sign of Cassowary, or at it's bower, Golden Bowerbird.

 

[Jon Turner]

So off to Springvale road ( a dirt-track).
426) RUFOUS FANTAIL
427) GREY FANTAIL
428) YELLOW-FACED HONEYEATER
429) TORRRESIAN CROW
430) GREY SHRIKE THRUSH
431) JACKY WINTER
432) RED-BROWED FIRETAIL - nest-building
433) COMB-CRESTED JACANA
434) RED-BACKED FAIRY WREN
435) DUSKY WOODSWALLOW
436) PHEASANT COUCAL
437) WHITE-CHEEKED HONEYEATER
438) RUFOUS WHISTLER
439) BROWN GERYGONE
440) FUSCOUS HONEYEATER
441) LITTLE LORIKEET
442) EASTERN YELLOW ROBIN
443) RED- TAILED BLACK COCKATOO - awesome size in flight!!

 

[Jon Turner]

We now found our way to the Hasties Swamp, which was extremely full, and therefore not ideal conditions - no muddy margins and water too deep. still a few birds though - good to see more Pink-eared Ducks, a few Royal Spoonbill, Oz Dabchick, Freckled Duck, Pied and Little Black Cormorants, Hardhead, Grey Teal, Swamphens, and bothe Straw-necked and Oz White Ibis. over the surrounding fields were plenty of Black Kites and a Whistling Kite.
444) Intermediate Egret
445) PLUMED WHISTLING DUCK

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Great to see you're having a good time in north Queensland. Are you sure about the Freckled Duck though Jon? I'd have thought that would be a monstrous rarity up that way.

 

[Dom F]

Great to see you're having a good time in north Queensland. Are you sure about the Freckled Duck though Jon? I'd have thought that would be a monstrous rarity up that way.

There has been a bit of an influx Larry. The first arrived in March 2013 and numbers peaked at 28 I think, there are still up to 23 at Hasties although the high water levels make it hard to get an exact count

 

[Larry Sweetland]

There has been a bit of an influx Larry. The first arrived in March 2013 and numbers peaked at 28 I think, there are still up to 23 at Hasties although the high water levels make it hard to get an exact count

wow, that's great B . I've just looked at the range map in P & K, and it's a long way out off. Apologies for questioning you there Jon.

 

[Dom F]

wow, that's great B . I've just looked at the range map in P & K, and it's a long way out off. Apologies for questioning you there Jon.

I think that prior to March last year there had only been four records in FNQ all as far as I can tell from around Charters Towers. At least one of them is starting to gain some colour on its bill so who knows perhaps they will colonise and become a regular feature.